BM-K  Enter Approved Vendors

Purpose of Program

Approved vendors can be used in the purchasing process.  This program provides sophisticated control of approved vendors at the customer and/or bill of material level.  If all you want is approved vendors by item, use PO-L  Assign Vendors to Items instead.  For more information on using approved vendors, see How to Use Approved Vendors and Manufacturers.

Use this program to enter approved vendors on any bill of material component.  You can designate approved vendors globally, meaning that the vendors are applicable within any bill of material, by parent item number, meaning that the vendors are designated only within a particular assembly, or by customer, meaning that the vendors are only approved for a particular customer's products (if you are a job shop).

You can also enter the vendor's item number as a cross-reference to your item number, if applicable.  When entering a purchase order for the vendor, the vendor item number will come into the purchase order as a comment line following the entry of your item number.

These approved vendors can optionally print within BM-B, Print Bills of Material, and BM-I, Print Summarized Bill of Material.

General Program Operation

Enter the standard item number, which is the item number of the standard component within the bill of material.  If you wish the approved vendors to be global, meaning that they would apply no matter the assembly or the customer, leave the Parent Part No and Customer Code fields blank.

If you want to make the approved vendors specific to a particular assembly, enter a Parent Item number, then the vendors and vendor item numbers (see instructions below), then save the record.  You can then create further records for other assemblies or customers for the same standard component, if needed.

If you are a job shop and want to make the approved vendors specific only to those products made for a particular customer, enter a Customer Code (or select one by clicking on the Lookup icon (or press F2), then the vendors and vendor item numbers (see instructions below), then save the record.

Each approved vendor record is a combination of the Std Item number, Parent Part No, and Customer Code fields.  You can define a number of these combinations, each with its own group of approved vendors.

Entering Vendors and Vendor Item numbers

After you've defined the Std Item number, Parent Part No, Customer Code combination, you can then enter the approved vendors in the entry area in the bottom of the screen.  Enter the vendor code or select one by clicking on the Lookup icon (or press F2).  Vendors must be pre-defined in AP-A  Enter Vendors.  The vendor name will be automatically displayed.  If the vendor has his own item number for the standard component, enter it (this is a 25 character alphanumeric field).  You will be asked if you wish to save the record.

The entry area is now clear for entry of another vendor.  You can continue entering as many vendors and vendor item numbers as you wish.

If you wish to delete an existing approved vendor, while the cursor is in the Vend Code field, click on the Display Lines button to get a listing of approved vendors in a display window.  Highlight the vendor you want and press <Enter> or click on it to bring it into the entry area.  Once the desired vendor is in the entry area, click on the Delete button (or press F4) to delete it.

As an alternative to using the display window, you can also retrieve existing approved vendors using the standard search keys and buttons (First button or F5 key, Last button or F6 key, Previous button or F7 key, Next button or F8 key).